


An Incorrigible Letch

by missmariie



Series: Retail Detail [6]
Category: Castle
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Retail, Discussion of Infidelity, House Party, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 11:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4519968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmariie/pseuds/missmariie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Lanie is very drunk, and Taylor Swift has terrible timing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kevin stood staring at the chip in the paint near the base of Elinor’s door for about five minutes. He dug his toes into the soles of his shoes as if he was worming his way through to the concrete steps beneath him, and hummed along to the delightfully trashy pop music that throbbed through the door. 

Eventually, the sound from inside changed, and bloody Brian Nguyen’s demented klezmer quartet Beethoven medley came on. It made Kevin roll his eyes so hard that he left his nerves on the doorstep and pushed his way inside. 

Before he had time to adjust to the movement and noise of the room, Lanie was upon him, launching herself into his arms and almost upending her cider. 

“Kevin! Oh my god! You made it!” she squealed. 

He chuckled and squeezed her back.

“I was under the impression that I didn’t have much choice.” 

The chatter in the room had noticeably quietened. Kevin tried very hard to pretend that the whole damn lot of them weren’t ‘subtly observing’. 

“Hey Sunshine.” said Jenny, sliding up for a hug as soon as Lanie released him. 

She was still wearing the perfume he used to buy her. 

“Kev, Jenny and I totally figured out that you can sing ‘Do You Believe in Life After Love’ as a round! We should show you!” Lanie babbled happily, grabbing hold of Kevin’s arm as she almost stumbled.

Lanie, Kevin decided, was spectacularly drunk.

Jenny giggled, and smiled indulgently at Lanie. Apparently she’d come to the same conclusion. 

“Holy shit! If it isn’t the prodigal son!” Louise yelled across the room and barrelled over to where Kevin was standing. Whatever spell had been holding the assembled masses back broke, and everyone rushed forward to greet him. 

 

Having disappeared off the face of the earth for six months, Kevin returned a surprisingly popular man. Everyone wanted to know when he was coming back, and they all seemed determined to regale him with news of literally everything that’d happened while he was gone. It wasn’t until he found himself as the third party in an entirely two sided conversation that he was able to polish off Lanie’s half drunken cider that he’d somehow ended up with. 

Meanwhile, Brian Nguyen and Tommy D were having an ‘instrument’ measuring contest. 

“Yeah, but have you _heard_ that saxophone solo?”

“Every time I get in a lift, Nguyen.”

“Hey, at least people come to saxophone concerts to listen, not to just gawk at the instrument.” 

“The concert harp is the sound of heaven. _Literally_. It’s not just its natural good looks that draw the crowds.”

“Tommy, you aren’t even religious.”

In the corner of the room, Elinor had opened up her upright piano, and Louise had turned off the music. 

Kevin gripped the empty bottle in his hand and willed away his flash of envy. 

Jenny appeared at his elbow the moment Elinor played her first note, and even Brian was sensitive enough to the infamous situation between them to let him bow out of the conversation gracefully and be led away by the wrist. 

“Thanks.” he muttered. 

Jenny shrugged easily. 

 

Out in the garage, someone had put on a Taylor Swift compilation and there were colourful bowls of punch and snacks dotted around the place. 

“This one is all pineapple-y!” Jenny told him brightly, pressing a styrofoam cup full of mystery liquid into his hand. 

He gulped it down faster than was probably wise, given the reputation of Elinor’s punch. 

“That _is_ pineapple-y!” 

Jenny laughed and pulled him towards the stereo for a dance. 

 

Kevin threw back his head in a fit of laughter as Jenny masterfully let out a perfect imitation of that goat from the ‘Trouble’ video. Drunk sopranos – never underestimate their ability to make high pitched noises. She poked out her tongue at him and scooped more punch into their cups as the next song started up. 

_I remember when we broke up the first time. Saying ‘this is it, I’ve had enough…’_

Kevin and Jenny winced at each other as the lyrics hit. 

After they stood there, looking anywhere but at each other for a moment, Jenny burst out laughing. She downed her whole drink in one go, and dropped her cup onto the tacky plastic table cloth, dancing up to Kevin. 

“Oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh, we called it off again last night!” she sung at him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. 

He shook his head at her, but let the music carry him into the dance. By the time the chorus hit, he was there with her, jumping about in some ridiculous dance as they pointed at each other and sung along, nearly catatonic with laughter. 

“We-heee are never ever ever, getting back together!” 

They were almost nose to nose, Kevin’s feet having trouble finding the beat through his inebriation when the song shifted into the bridge. 

_I used to think that we were forever ever…_

Jenny leant a little further into his space, the apples of her cheeks glowing as her lips turned up at the corners, and she wet them with her tongue. 

Kevin felt the pull towards her. The shift in the atmosphere was familiar. He’d walked this road a hundred times. 

He felt the arousal curl in his gut. 

He swallowed, let it pull at him for a moment, and stepped back. 

He smiled down at her, and she tilted her head in a silent question. 

“I can’t. I think there might be somebody.” 

Her mouth fell open, and then lifted at the corners again. 

“Oo-er Kevin. _Might_ be someone?” 

He nodded dumbly, and she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out into the garden. 

He pocketed a fistful of peanut M&Ms on his way past the snack table.


	2. Chapter 2

Kevin lay in the mulch of a garden bed with his pile of M&Ms pooled onto his stomach. Jenny was sipping at her punch, propped up against a bush next to him. 

“A boy someone, or a girl someone?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows dramatically. 

Kevin swallowed and traced the eves of the house with his eyes. 

“A boy someone.” 

Jenny nodded and worried at her cup with her teeth. After staring into the liquid in it distantly for a minute she looked down at him, her face serious. 

“I know this is probably kind of a big ask after everything I said, but do you think I could meet him someday?” 

“Yeah, of course.” 

Kevin was shocked at how easy it was to say. Not that long ago, he thought he’d never completely forgive her. Now the old slurs washed off him like watercolour paint.

“Although you’ll probably be in for a bit of a wait with that one.” he ploughed on, turning an M&M over in his fingers, “He went a bit funny when Lanie mentioned you the other day. I think he might be the jealous type.”

He neither expected, nor received a sly remark on Javier being right to be jealous. Instead, Jenny threw back her head and laughed. 

Kevin had always loved how girlish her laugh was. 

“So how come you’re not sure you have a someone?” Jenny asked, stealing an M&M from of off Kevin’s stomach. 

Kevin shrugged. 

“I’m not actually completely sure he’s into dudes. He’s sort of… bro-ish. But then he goes and flirts with me, and we might have gone on a date the other day.” 

Jenny gave him a sly look. 

“You don’t even know if he’s into dudes, but you have to stop kissing me?” 

Kevin twisted his fingertips into his sweater. 

“I have to know that I can.” he told her, swallowing past the lump in his throat. 

His infidelity hung in the air between them, leaving the silence heavy and sick. 

“Kevin,” she told him quietly, abandoning her drink onto the grass, “it’s not the same. You were confused and lonely and trying to figure out your sexuality. Lightning doesn’t strike twice.” 

His eyes stung and he covered them with his arm. 

Apparently it was a night for forgiveness. 

“Still.” he managed to choke out past the lump in his throat. 

Jenny laughed again, although it was a little weighted this time. 

“No, I get it.” she told him, stealing another M&M. “Do you know how weird it is to go solo to a marriage equality rally?” 

That snatched Kevin’s attention away from his careful examination of the spots in his eyes, and he pushed himself up a little to look at her, his elbows digging into the tambark. 

“You went to a marriage equality rally?” he asked her incredulously. 

She shrugged.

“Three, actually.” 

“Wow.” 

She laughed again, and Kevin closed his eyes and lowered himself back into the garden. 

“Will you go to any more?” he asked her. 

“Probably not. It was kinda lonely.” 

It was Kevin’s turn to laugh a little. He could imagine Jenny standing alone and terribly out of place amongst all the banners, colours and outrage. It didn’t suit her. 

“That’s the weirdest form of penance I’ve ever heard of.” he told her, still trying to muffle his amusement. 

“You’re one to talk, Sweetheart.” 

He laughed again, stuffing his face full of the remaining M&Ms and sitting up to face her. 

“I’ve never been to a rally. We should go together sometime. It’ll be great – I won’t cheat on anyone, and you won’t say anything indelicate.” 

She threw a piece of tambark at him. 

“Why don’t we go to a Mardi Gras instead?” she suggested. “You can bring your hot new boyfriend.”

“What makes you think he’s hot?” Kevin asked, wriggling himself down into the mulch next to her and stealing some of her shrubbery to lean on. 

She made a show of looking him up and down. 

“Just a feeling.” 

Kevin fell about laughing, rolling onto the marshy grass next to them.

“Jenny O’Malley! You are an incorrigible letch!”

Their laughter rang out across the empty garden and faded into the thumping music that leaked out of the house behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> Two more to go! 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this one. I had a lot of fun creating Jenny and Ryan's backstory in my head. I like writing these kinds of messy, complicated relationships.


End file.
